THE Nigerian government has begun talks with oil industry monitors to avert a planned strike by the workers over pay, industry officials said. The white-collar PENGASSAN oil workers union of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) last week gave the government until September 29 to effect the payment of a 10% increase in salary and to improve workers’ service conditions. The workers warned there could be disruption to operations in the Nigerian oil industry if their demands were not met at the expiry of the ultimatum on Friday. The DPR workers supervise oil loadings at Nigeria’s export terminals. The last time they went on strike in March this year, Nigeria’s crude oil export loadings were briefly affected. Nigeria produces more than two million barrels of crude per day, making it OPEC’s sixth largest exporter. – Reuters